The First Prank
by Not Just A Reader - A Fangirl
Summary: George tells his children of his very first prank. WINNER OF THE TWIN EXCHANGE 2014 AUGUST TITLE SWAP CHALLENGE!


**A/N: This is my entry to the Twin Exchange August Challenge, which is a Title Swap. The title of this fic was submitted by Violetmaid. Hope you all enjoy this!**

* * *

"DADDY'S HOME!"

George grinned at the raucous cacophony that pierced the air as his kids raced towards the fireplace - green flames still flickering - to greet him. He barely got a glimpse of the infamous Weasley red hair and the unexpected brown from Angelina before he was tackled to the ground by the combined force of a ten-year-old and a five-year-old.

"Hey!" He laughed and hugged the forms that had their arms wrapped around his waist. Lovingly ruffling their hair, he asked, "Where's Mum?"

"Mummy's with Grandma Weasley!" little Roxanne said loudly.

"She left you home alone?" George was aghast. The Floo powder was in their reach, and the knitting needles were knitting by themselves, and the back door was open so the gnomes could come in any second…But Angelina would never do that.

"No, I did not."

George looked up to find Angelina standing by the back door, a basket full of carrots and potatoes resting on one side of her hip and her hand on the other. A gentle admonishing look was being sent towards the slightly sheepish but mostly triumphant kids at his side.

"You tricked me, eh?" George nudged the kids, who grinned up at him.

Roxanne cocked her head and said, "Uncle Ronnie said that Uncle Freddie and you _aaalways_ played tricks on _eeeverybody_."

"Doesn't mean you should do it," Angelina said from the kitchen. The kids only pouted, as George fondly gazed at them, following them over to the couch where they had been sitting before he came home.

He was suddenly hit with a pang of nostalgia and sorrow as he gazed at Fred, his son. For as much as Roxanne resembled Angelina, with her brown hair unexpectedly beating out the bright Weasley red and her brown eyes a shade just slightly darker than her father's, Fred was a striking image of George, right down to the freckles splattered across his nose and the slightly sticking-out of his ears. And where there's George, there's his twin. And sometimes, merely looking at his son was too painful a reminder of his lost other half.

"You know what?" he said quietly, but his children's hearing could rival Teddy's werewolf-enhanced ones. They turned, two different shades of brown meeting his, their eyes glimmering with childish innocence. "My first prank, with your Uncle Fred, it was something like this, too."

He saw from the corner of his eyes Angelina giving him a warning look, but he disregarded it. This wouldn't be too harmful. Just a short tale of two young boys discovering their penchant for mischief.

He sat down between the kids on the couch, hugging them with an arm each, and began his story.

* * *

Neither of them had learned to control their magic yet, and whether they meant to or not remains unknown to even the perpetrators. Of course, it was only temporarily - as neither of the twins were skilled enough with their magic yet to be able to keep up a charm of complete invisibility for an extended period of time - and only a result of a - unknown at the time - particularly mischievous Disillusionment Charm.

And so it was that, at the tender age of seven, Fred and George Weasley had, wandlessly, probably unintentionally (but you can't really be sure), caused their mother to disappear.

* * *

"Daddy!" Molly watched fondly as the raucousness that was seven young children, all excited at being together at home for Christmas, all but threw itself at her very bewildered husband, who, having just stepped out of the Floo from work, was really not expecting seven children to throw themselves at him. Or maybe he was. She had only told him about Bill and Charlie coming home from Hogwarts yesterday, and he was gone early this morning.

"Hey kids," he laughed, ruffling each of their hair in turn, making Ginny frown and pout as she tried to put her hair back into its previous position (the boys didn't care). "Where's Mummy?"

"I'm here," Molly called out, slightly surprised that he had not spotted her already.

Arthur turned his gaze around the room, trying to find her. His brows creased as he failed to find his wife anywhere in the house.

"Molly?"

"I'm here, Arthur," Molly waved her hand around, a expression of "hello?" on her face.

Arthur's brows creased even more.

"Where are you?"

"Here."

"I can hear you," - he was still trying to find her - "but I can't see you."

Molly was bewildered and confused to death. What did he mean, he can't see her? She was right here, by the stove. She said as much to him.

"By the stove? No, love, I can't see you," Arthur replied. The kids had long left to the living room again and he walked towards the stove, arms out, trying to find her. Now, taking a closer look at her arms, she realised that as she was waving them around earlier, she had neglected to notice that they were invisible. In fact, she couldn't find her arms at all. Or any other part of her body.

Suffice to say, Molly was starting to freak out.

"What do you mean? What's happened? Why can't you see me? Why can't I see me?" she started to rant, feeling very much alarmed. She grasped his hands to let him know she was there.

"Molly, it's okay, calm down," Arthur said, squeezing her hands in comfort and reassurance. "It's probably just a charm."

"But who could have set a charm on me in this house?" Molly asked. "Bill and Charlie wouldn't have learnt it at school yet…"

In their ranting and conferring, they missed the quiet giggling.

"Oh, look, you're back to normal," Arthur said. cutting Molly off halfway through a distressed rant. Molly looked down to find that she could actually see her body again. She breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh, thank Merlin," she breathed. "That took long enough."

"Actually," Arthur said, looking at his watch. "That was only about 7 minutes."

"Well, I suppose if there was someone who wanted to harm me and was capable of doing a Disillusionment Charm, they'd be able to keep it up for longer than that."

"So that means…"

Molly marched to the living room, making the children look up from their activities in surprise. She scanned the room, doing a mental headcount. _Bill, Charlie, Percy…Ron, Ginny…._

A glance exchanged with her husband, and the couple reached a mutual conclusion and understanding of who was behind her temporary invisibility.

"Bill," Molly asked, assuming that the twelve-year-old was responsible enough in her group of children. "Where are Fred and George?"

Bill opened his mouth to answer, looked towards the corner of the room with a finger pointed, then stopped, his mouth still hanging open. Evidently, Fred and George had sneaked out without notifying their eldest brother.

It was then that they heard the muffled giggling coming from behind the halfway open laundry door. Eyes narrowed, glances exchanged, and then Molly and Arthur quietly stepped towards the door. (The children knew good enough to stay behind.) Arthur threw the door open - to reveal a huddling Fred and George, crouched behind the door and muffling their giggles with their hand.

Their gaze snapped up to their parents, shock and alarm at having been found soon turning to mischievous guilt. They grinned sheepishly.

"Sorry, Mum."

* * *

George watched his children squeal with laughter, nostalgia and wistful happiness filling him as he reminisced on his younger years. If only Fred was here now…

"Dad, Dad," Roxanne yelled. "Can you do that to Mum?"

"No!" came Angelina's firm voice from the kitchen. George turned to face her with a grin on his face. "No, George Weasley. You are not going to make me invisible. Even only temporarily," she added, as he opened his mouth. "I do not want McGonagall to be horrified at having James Potter and Fred Weasley at Hogwarts again," she said with a smile.

"I suppose once was enough," George acquiesced.

* * *

From that day on, it became somewhat of a tradition for George to share tales of his adventure to his kids every night after dinner. Even after they were off to Hogwarts, the tradition continued whenever they were home for breaks.

One day, George found that he had no more stories to share.

But that was okay, because that was the day he was united with his twin again.

* * *

**A/N: Aw. So that was that. It took me a while to get this out to be honest. I didn't really know what Fred and George's first prank would be, so if it didn't meet your grand expectations, I am truly sorry. I also didn't know (and couldn't find out) Bill and Charlie's ages in relation to the others - as in, were they, like, two years older than Percy or what? - so I took a wild guess that Bill was twelve.**

**Reviews are always appreciated.**

**Ciao!**


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